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help for ^notedit^                                    (STB-43: dm57)
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A visual notes editor for Windows and Macintosh
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   ^notedit^


Description
-----------

^notedit^ simulates a simple text editor for manipulating ^notes^; notes can be
created, altered, deleted and reordered in a editing buffer.  The contents of
the buffer can then be associated with any existing variable, or with the data
set (^_dta^).  All operations are performed with controls in the ^notedit^ window.


Controls
--------

^Notes Category^  an edit box for choosing a variable name or ^_dta^ with which a
      set of notes can be associated. A name can be typed into the box or pick-
      ed from the drop-down list invoked by the down-arrow button

^Select^  chooses the category whose name appears in the Notes Category edit box
      and loads any current notes for that category into the edit buffer

^Data Notes^  shows the number of notes currently stored in the data set for the
      selected category

^Display^  shows the selected Data Notes on the Results screen, exactly as if the
      @notes@ command had been issued

^Buffer Notes^  shows the number of the last non-blank note currently held in the
      edit buffer.  (Updated by scrolling, or pressing ^Save^, ^Compact Buffer^, or
      the ^Insert^ or ^Delete^ buttons.)

^Notes Buffer^  the edit buffer in which notes are manipulated, composed of a
      sequence of global macros.  There is no limit on the number of notes in
      the buffer, but only those in the buffer window are visible and editable
      at a given time.  The buffer window is a stack of 5 edit boxes; each slot
      in the stack can be used to edit buffer notes.  Cut, copy, and paste op-
      erations to and from the clipboard are available at each slot

^Scroll Buttons^  the 6 buttons at the left of the buffer window, used to navi-
      gate the notes buffer.  ^Top^ places Note 1 in the top slot of the buffer
      window; ^PgUp^ shifts the top slot 5 positions upward in the notes buffer;
      ^Up^ shifts the top slot one position upward in the notes buffer.  ^Dn^ moves
      the top slot one position downward in the notes buffer; ^PgDn^ shifts the
      top slot 5 positions downward in the notes buffer; ^Bottom^ positions the
      last non-blank note in the bottom slot of the buffer window

^Insert^  pushes existing notes downward in the buffer, leaving a blank note in
      the buffer window edit box selected by the radio buttons

^Delete^  drops the note in the buffer window slot selected by the radio buttons
      and pulls the notes upward in the buffer to fill the gap created

^Compact Buffer^  eliminates all blank notes from the edit buffer, and positions
      Note 1 in the top buffer window slot.  (The edit buffer can have any num-
      ber of blank notes, but they will not be saved to the current data.  This
      button shows the set of notes that will be saved by the ^Save^ button.)

^Clear Buffer^  erases all notes in the edit buffer.  (Pressing ^Save^ will then
      drop all notes in the current data for the selected category.)

^Save^  performs the ^Compact Buffer^ operation and then copies the notes buffer to
      the current data, replacing any existing notes for the selected category.
      (As with @notes@, blank notes, leading blank characters, and excess imbed-
      ded blanks are purged by ^Save^, and the isolated string ^TS^ is converted to
      a date/time stamp.)

^Browse^  disables the ^Save^ button so that current data notes cannot be altered.


Warning
-------

The left-quote (^`^) and double-quote (^"^) characters must be avoided.  They can
be typed into the 5 slots of the buffer window, but problems will occur as soon
as the window is updated.  The ^`^ character will be interpreted as the start of
a macro expansion, which ordinarily causes part of the note to vanish.  The ^"^
character will produce an error message on the Results screen.


Author
------

   John R. Gleason
   Syracuse University
   Syracuse NY, USA
   email: loesljrg@@ican.net


Also see
--------

    STB:  STB-43 dm57
 Manual:  [U] 17 Keyboard use
          [R] notes, [R] window
On-line:  help for @note@